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Grand Bahama’s special dives
Blue holes and undersea caves astound divers
Grand Bahama Island and the surrounding seabed are riddled with blue holes and honeycombed with submerged caverns. Those in the Lucayan National Park are windows into one of the world’s most extensive cave systems.
The best known blue hole on Grand Bahama is Ben’s Cave, where native Lucayan remains were found in a burial cave in six ft of water. A certified cave diver from the Underwater Explorers Society (UNEXSO), located in Port Lucaya, takes small groups of experienced divers through 200 ft of the cavern, within a lighted area, so they can get a taste of cave diving. Here they see “stalactites and stalagmites, calcite crystals and sections of a 20,000-year-old fossilized reef,” according to UNEXSO’s Cristina Zenato, a master cave-diving instructor.
“Once you enter the water and look back at the entrance,” a visiting diver said, “you truly can see how clear the water is and how deeply the sunlight penetrates even from the comparatively small opening. To float on the surface and look down as the sunlight disappears into the depths and obvious passageways is one of the most beautiful sights you’ll ever see in diving.”
Another memorable blue hole, Mermaid’s Lair, is more difficult to find. “The entrance pool looks like a puddle hidden in the Bahamian forest,” one guide says, but once you enter “you’ll find yourself in a huge room offering some of the best cave formations to be seen within any cavern zone.”
You will also need a professional cave diver to take you to Owl Hole, where you have to descend a 40 ft ladder to enter the water. Diving in this blue hole is for dedicated cavern explorers only, but the rewards are great. Owl Hole has the largest of the island’s ambient light zones, a pristine halocline and stunning views back toward the entrance.
The halocline is the zone where saltwater and fresh water meet and mingle. Below that point, the water is “clear as air,” as one pro cave diver puts it.
The same conditions exist in Sawmill Sink, an inland blue hole on Great Abaco Island. This site has acquired fame in recent years because scientists have found it to be a treasure trove of fossils. You can read all about it in the 2011 Bahamas Handbook.
Blue hole diving isn’t for everyone, but those who go where few have gone before will remember the experience forever.
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